Items in this Dictionary have been researched by anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, linguists, psychiatrists, psychologists, semioticians, and others who have studied human communication from a scientific point of view. Every effort has been made to cite their work in the text. Definitions, meanings, and interpretations left uncredited are those of the author. Gestures and consumer products with current trademark registrations are identified with the ® symbol.

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There have been many who, not knowing how to mingle the useful and the pleasing in theright proportions, have had all their toil and pains for nothing . . . --Cervantes (Don Quixote)